


Academic

by redeem147



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-12
Updated: 2011-08-12
Packaged: 2017-10-22 13:05:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/238338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redeem147/pseuds/redeem147
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonathan helps Anya out at Sunnydale High.  Or so she thinks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Academic

She sat alone on the courtyard steps of Sunnydale High. Overwhelmed, she buried her face in her hands and wept.

"Hey."

She was only on the third step, but even sitting she looked down on him. Wiping her eyes, she asked, "Do I know you?"

"Jonathan," he replied. He walked up the steps and sat beside her. "You're Anya."

"I know that." She sniffed a bit, and his hand hovered over her shoulder. "You can comfort me, if you like. I don't mind."

He smiled and patted her a few times, before placing his hand in his lap. "Bad day?"

"I hate it here." She turned and looked at him. "How do you stand it? This place. I don't belong here."

"Nobody feels like they belong here."

"No, I mean I really don't belong here. In this school. In this world."

He nodded. "I know." He dug under his fingernails with his left forefinger, concentrating. "What do you remember?"

"I remember... I don't know. It's fuzzy. I was in another world, and now I'm here. Does that make any sense?"

"It does, actually. This isn't the high school, you know."

"I didn't think so." She stood up and stretched, pushing her hand against the wall next to the staircase. "It feels solid enough."

"I think maybe it's like the Matrix."

"I don't know what that is, I don't think." She down a step to be at eye level with him. "It sounds familiar."

"It's a movie. Neo thinks he lives in one world, but he's really trapped in a little cell running the machine world."

"I think I saw that. Xander liked it." Her face lit up. "Xander. I remember him. Xander was my cowardly fiancee who left me at the altar. I seem to remember him getting his eye poked out, but I don't think I had anything to do with it."

Jonathan screwed up his face. "Ew. That's gross. And too bad. I kind of liked Xander."

"And I remember you! You were the little annoying fellow in the high school that Buffy stopped from blowing his brains out."

"Were. So you know we're not in high school now."

"We can't be, can we? I left before graduation, but this school blew up. And I was engaged to Xander. And ... you did something. Something very bad. You and Warren and Andrew." She looked around the courtyard. "This school blew up. But we're in this school. I think it might be an alternative universe." She concentrated for a moment, trying to think vengeful thoughts, but her face didn't change. "This is very, very strange."

"I know it seems that way. Think some more."

She took a deep breath. "I'm not a vengeance demon. So it's not right after the not wedding. It was going to be so beautiful too. Didn't you go to Mexico?"

"I did, for a little while. With Andrew."

"Mexico has some very beautiful areas. There are many wronged women there. Visiting them always seemed more like a vacation than work. Andrew came back. I remember Andrew." She bit her lower lip. "Andrew and a wheelchair race. That can't be right."

"We both came back. Do you remember anything else?"

She sighed, then shook her head. "It's all bits and pieces. I can almost remember, but then it slips away. It is very annoying."

"I have an idea." He stood up and gestured for her to follow him. "Maybe if you walked around the school grounds, it would spark something."

She nodded and followed him, scrutinizing everything she passed. "I know that bench," she said. "Buffy and her friends liked to sit there. Oh, I remember Buffy."

"That's good."

"I remember Buffy and Xander and how Xander always seemed to pay more attention to what she thought than what I did, even though he was my boyfriend and she was just supposed to be his friend."

"Oh," he said. "Not so good."

She was getting excited. "Then we all got ticked off with her and threw her out of her house. Even Xander." She smiled. "That was very satisfying."

 

"Do you remember why? Why you kicked her out?"

She stopped for a moment. "No."

"That doesn't seem like a very nice thing to do. After she saved everyone's life so many times." He looked up at the sky, trying to avoid her angry glance. "The sky is really blue today. Don't you think it's really blue?"

"Wait a minute." Anya was not to be dissuaded. "Didn't Buffy save your life? Wasn't she the one to keep you from shooting yourself?" Another memory dawned. "And didn't you repay her by trying to become an evil crime lord? Did you think that was such a nice thing to do?"

"No." He pointed upwards. "That's the bell tower where she saved me. And I was grateful, really. I gave her a little umbrella at the prom and everything. But Warren was so persuasive, and he made it seem like it was all just a game, at first. But it wasn't. And when he tried to hurt Buffy, I tried to stop him." He caught her eyes. "It was a crappy thing to do. I'll always be sorry for what I did."

"You should be. Anyway, we let her back in the house. And then she moved into the basement with Spike. I hope they had sex. He's very good at it." Her eyes widened. "Oh. I had sex with Spike."

"Let's not talk about that." They had worked their way to the front of the school. "You want to go inside? That might help you remember some other, non-sexy stuff."

"Isn't it locked?" she asked. "There's nobody around, so I figured it's Sunday, or maybe the summer."

"Matrix, remember? Not really the school." He opened the door for her and then followed her into the foyer. "Does this help?"

She walked down the hallway. "I don't know. All the little hairs on the back of my arms are standing up. I think something bad happened here. And this doesn't look like the Sunnydale High we went to. It looks ... newer."

"Yeah." They continued their walk until they came to the basement door.

"Should we go down there?" she asked. "Spike was living down there for a while. He was crazy. But not because he had sex with me."

"No," he replied curtly. "I do not want to go into the basement."

"Oh, right. Because that's where Andrew stabbed you." Her hand flew to her mouth. "You're dead."

"I know."

"Oh, Frigga. I was here, in the hallway. The bringers were coming, and Andrew and I were fighting them. And then, I remember pain. A sharp pain. And then... That's all I remember. Until I was sitting on the steps."

Jonathan looked at her with sympathy. He waited for her to continue.

"I'm dead, aren't I?" she asked. "Just like you."

"It's not so bad." He held out his hand. "You can come with me now. You're ready."

She took his hand in hers. "It's not so bad?"

He shook his head. "You'll be fine."

"You know, you're short, but you have a nice smile." She held her head high. "I trust you. Yes. I think I'm ready."

The school fell away.


End file.
